Isaac Peral y Caballero was born on June 1, 1851, in Cartagena, Spain, and died on May 22, 1895, in Berlin, Germany. He was a Spanish engineer, naval officer, and creator of the submarine Peral. He joined the Spanish Navy in 1866 and built the first submarine powered by electricity, which was launched in 1888. Political leaders did not accept the submarine, but the navy did. Later, he left the navy to work on other inventions for businesses.

Early life

He was born on June 1, 1851, in Cartagena, where his father, who worked as a sailor in the Spanish navy, lived.

In 1859, his father was moved to a military base in San Fernando, Cádiz Province. At age 14, he chose to join his brother Alejandro at the naval academy called Colegio Naval Militar de San Carlos. This decision was costly for his family, so he worked hard to earn top grades. At age 16, after two years of study, he became a Guardiamarina de 2ª (Midshipman) in the Spanish navy. He also studied subjects such as geography, physics, and astronomy.

Peral fought in battles during the Third Carlist War in Spain and in Cuba. He received many medals for his military service.

In 1876, in Cádiz, Peral married María del Carmen Cencio, the daughter of an army doctor. The couple had nine children, but four of them died at a young age.

In 1881, Peral was working as a second lieutenant and part of a team that studied water and maps in the Philippines. During a visit to a barber shop, he suffered a small cut on his temple. This injury led to long-term health problems and later developed into a brain tumor.

Development of the submarine

Because of his poor health, Peral could no longer travel. He was given a position in Cádiz, where he taught at the new naval school, Escuela de Ampliación de Estudios de la Armada. There, he found time to work on his idea for a submarine powered by batteries that could fire torpedoes underwater. His main challenges were the need for money to develop and test his inventions, a lack of support from officials, and his arrogance when dealing with superiors who had less vision.

Peral’s design for a submarine was first written on September 20, 1884, when he prepared a paper titled Proyecto de Torpedero Submarino ("Project for a submarine torpedoboat").

After completing several studies and experiments and gaining support from his superiors and fellow officers, Peral shared his idea with the Spanish navy. In September 1885, he wrote a letter to the Spanish naval minister, Vice-Admiral Pezuela y Lobo. Pezuela y Lobo invited Peral to Madrid for a personal meeting. After the meeting, Pezuela y Lobo agreed to fund Peral’s early studies in Cádiz with an initial budget of 5,000 pesetas. This funding allowed the start of a program to build a full-scale submarine. The Peral submarine was the first practical submarine ever made. It was launched on September 8, 1888, and during a test with naval officials, it successfully simulated an attack on a cruiser at night without being detected and returned to port without damage. However, the submarine was limited to coastal use because it lacked a double-hull and a diesel engine (gasoline engines were unreliable at the time). Its performance was rarely matched by other submarines ten years later. A second project was rejected by naval authorities. Peral lost control over his work and became frustrated. He destroyed the interior of the submarine and its plans to prevent foreign spies from copying his designs.

Retirement and death

Isaac Peral became upset with the senior naval engineers who were supposed to oversee his project. Because of this, he left his active naval duty in November 1891. He settled his family in Madrid, where he started an electric company and continued to create and patent new inventions, such as an electric machine gun and the plans for Spain’s first electric power plants. He remained hopeful that his submarine design would eventually be accepted by the government. During this time, one of his workshops was located at number 13, Calle de Génova, which is now the headquarters of the People's Party.

After an operation in Berlin to treat the brain tumor he had suffered from for many years, Peral developed meningitis. He died from this illness in Berlin in May 1895. Initially, he was buried in Madrid. In 1911, his body was moved to Cartagena, where a museum now honors his life and inventions.

Subsequent developments in submarine design

In 1895, John Philip Holland made an important advancement in submarine development by designing the first system that combined gasoline engines and electric power. This innovation solved the problem of batteries not lasting long.

The first submarine used by the Spanish Navy was created 22 years later. It was inspired by the Holland class submarine and named Peral. Holland’s own submarine was abandoned by the navy in 1913 but was recovered in 1929 and sent to Cartagena, where the navy’s submarines are based. It was stored in the local shipyard until 1965, when it was given to the city. From that year, it was shown in various parts of the harbor and moved to the Naval Museum of Cartagena in 2012.

Submarines with Peral's name in the Spanish Navy

The submarine torpedo boat is called Peral, but it did not use this name while active in service.

Submarines that have been named after him include:

• Isaac Peral, a Holland-type submarine that served from 1917 to 1932
• Isaac Peral, a C-class submarine that served as C-1 from 1928, was renamed Isaac Peral in 1930, and was taken out of service in 1950
• Isaac Peral (S-32), previously known as USS Ronquil (SS-396), a Balao-class submarine that served in the Spanish Navy from 1971 to 1984
• Isaac Peral, an S-80 class submarine that began service in 2023